7 Social Media Video Marketing Ideas That Are Perfect for eCommerce

When it comes to eCommerce, social media video marketing is the future. However, if you have not hopped on this trend yet, fret not, we are here to help you change that.

Social media platforms are powerful tools for businesses today. People heavily depend on these channels to educate themselves, connect with friends and family, and make online purchases. Not to mention that they are the go to solution for keeping oneself occupied while commuting, waiting for an appointment, or when we just have some time to spare.

For eCommerce owners, this means that with the right video marketing strategy, they can now convert social media users into loyal customers.

While social media is the video distribution channel, it requires nuance and knowledge of the specifics of each platform.

For example, people look for videos on YouTube, but when it comes to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, they are more likely to discover a video while scrolling through their feed. And whether they’ll watch it or not depends on how enticing the video is, and if it’s properly optimized for that channel.

In this article, we will be discussing this and how to help you create stunning social media video content for your eCommerce business. Read on to learn more about some of the best ways in which video can help boost your traffic, generate leads, improve audience engagement, and increase your bottom line.

Video – The MVP of Digital Marketing

When it comes to generating social media traffic, engagement, and impressions, video content is truly the most valuable player (MVP). According to TheEword, video content generates 6 times more retweets on Twitter, about 135% more organic reach on Facebook, and a 9.6% increase in conversions on Instagram.

Furthermore, 75% of executives confirm that they watch world-related videos daily on LinkedIn, and 71% of marketers admit that when looking at conversion rates, video outperforms every other content.

Where does all this appeal come from??

First of all, video content is relatable. While scrolling through social media, we are constantly exposed to digital messages that may seem impersonal. However, when we see a person’s face and hear them talk, the message feels much more authentic and up-close-and-personal.

Second, video content is versatilite. Videos are great brand-building tools for any business. They are easy to share and reshare multiple times across different platforms, where your audience is likely to be consuming content. Furthermore, they allow you to target practically any demographic you want.

There’s so much you can do with video. However, to ensure your efforts don’t go in vain, it’s important that your eCommerce social media video marketing strategy is suitable for your target audience.

Key eCommerce Social Media Video Marketing Tips

Before we go over some of the best video ideas for eCommerce, there are a few general eCommerce social media marketing tips you need to bear in mind.

1. Plan Your Video Content

Just like with any other marketing approach, when creating social media videos for your eCommerce business, you need to have a plan in place. This means, knowing what you want to achieve with your video, who it’s targeted at, what the message is that you want to transmit, and how are you going to communicate it.

Here are a few points to consider when planning your video content:

Here are a few points to consider when planning your video content:

• Consider your target customer.
• Set a realistic budget.
• Determine the type of your video.
• Write a script.
• Create a storyboard.
• Get the right equipment.
• Assign responsibilities.

Keep in mind that different platforms offer different video formats, and while you don’t necessarily have to script your video by the second, it’s important to ensure your message is clearly conveyed.

Read also: 9 Methods to Engage Your Audience Through Video Advertising

2. Align Videos with Your eCommerce Social Media Marketing Objectives

Social video sharing is part of your overall eCommerce social media marketing strategy, so it’s important to have your video content aligned with the overarching objectives.

Whether you want to boost brand awareness, increase conversions, or improve engagement, the videos you create and share should be focused on that. Just be careful not to become too promotional, because this may drive your followers away. After all, the best video ads are those that don’t feel like commercials, and their marketing message is conveyed through relatable stories.

To avoid giving your audience the wrong impression, mix up your approach to your video content so that your social media marketing strategy is fun and engaging.

3. Use Quality Video Equipment

Creating high-quality social media videos doesn’t have to be complex. You don’t necessarily need to hire professional filmmakers, or use super expensive equipment.

The key tools are:

• A good quality camera (preferably not a camera phone).
• A tripod.
• An external microphone (which is much better for voice overs and other types of content).
• Lighting equipment such as a good softbox or ring light.
• Video editing software.

Quality video equipment can be quite expensive, and if you’re not ready to make such an investment, you can always rent it. Depending on what types of videos you want to make, you can hire a studio with the equipment, or only the tools.

4. Remove Fluff When Editing

When shooting your video, you’ll likely film a lot more material than you need. Sometimes you might be tempted to leave some of the raw footage in, but it’s better that you don’t.

Editing is essential to ensuring that your videos are exciting, engaging, and straight-to-the-point. The first few seconds are crucial, because that is how long it will take for your viewers to decide if your video is worthy of their time.

If there are some extra scenes or moments that didn’t make the final cut, but are interesting and view-worthy, you can offer them to your followers as behind the scenes videos. These videos can often boost your engagement even more than the original footage.

5. Add a CTA

Similar to any other form of digital marketing, it’s essential that your social media video includes a call-to-action (CTA). After all, how else are viewers going to know what to do after watching a video?

Make sure to keep the CTA light-hearted and simple. Many users, especially Millennials and Gen Z, will be on the look-out for sales-focused messages, so you’d be better off keeping these low-key.

Here are a few tips to consider:

• Align your CTA with the video content. Encourage interactions that follow up on the video and its content.
• Use both verbal and visual CTA. Tell viewers to like, comment, share and subscribe and add relevant links on the video.
• Don’t announce the CTA too early on. But don’t wait till the end of the video either.
• Be direct and concise. Include a link to your page and tell viewers to visit it.
• Make your CTA an obviously clickable element. Design a button so that it’s visible and that people understand what it is and what they have to do.

Customize for the Specific Social Media Platform

Every social media platform has its own specific content format requirements. If you hoped to use the exact same video across multiple platforms, you will be disappointed.

For example, Instagram Reels, Facebook Stories, Snapchat, and TikTok have length and camera orientation limitations. Whereas YouTube and Vimeo allow creators to share content in various formats.

You should also take into account that you don’t have to upload videos onto every possible platform. Focus on the ones where your audience spends the most of their time.

7 Social Media Video Ideas That Are Perfect for eCommerce

Now that we’ve covered the basics of social media video marketing, here are some video ideas to help your eCommerce brand stand-out.

1. Product Reviews

Product reviews are one of the best types of eCommerce videos you can create. They enable you to show all the different angles of your product and/or service, while highlighting its features, purpose, and pricing. You can even compare your items to competitor’s, clarifying what makes them stand out, and how customers can purchase them.

There are various ways to review your products on videos, such as:

• Informational Video. By sharing helpful information about your products, you can build awareness, authority, and make your brand more relatable.
• Product Close-Up. You can highlight all features and details of your items up close so that your customers have the confidence that they will be spending their money wisely.
• User-Generated Content. Customers trust other customers, and they enjoy feeling included in the product development and promotional process. So if you want to kill two birds with one stone, this is the type of eCommerce video to go for.

2. Product Demos

Demos or explainer videos are perfect for providing information about your products and services. They convey complex information in an engaging way, while removing confusion and mistrust.

Read also: Demand Creation: The Key to a New Product’s Commercial Success

The key to creating a top-notch product demo is a good script that emphasizes the unique features of the product and has a storyboard that ensures that everything is showcased in a clear and concise manner.

3. How-to Videos

How-to videos work wonderfully at building brand awareness and for familiarizing your audience with your product/service. Essentially, these tutorials use visual and audio instructions to clearly communicate a process. They are similar to explainer videos and product demos, but are less promotional and more instructional because they illustrate how a product or a service works.

Additionally, how-to videos can support the customer journey in multiple ways, and this would depend on the content of the video.

For instance, if the tutorial is focused more on the process – e.g. How to Cook Pasta, it would support the awareness or consideration stage. However, if it’s focused on a specific product – e.g. How to Create a Content Calendar with Asana, it would support the post-purchase stage.

All in all, the main goal of how-to eCommerce videos is to help the audience solve a problem and learn more about a topic. They can be educational and/or promotion depending on the customer journey stage they support.

4. Company Videos

If you want your audience to become more invested in your eCommerce brand, you need to offer them valuable content, and company videos are perfect for this. By telling your brand’s story, and sharing your mission and vision, you can really make an impact on your customers.

Read also: 9 Ways to Use Video for Better Customer Retention

There are different ways to show off your brand’s personality. The most common of which are:

• About Us Videos. Present your company’s backstory values, goals, and motivation.
• Behind-the-Scenes Videos. Showcase all the interesting, but not often widely known, processes involved in making the brand what it is.
• Meet the Team Videos. Give your brand humanity and show off your company culture.
• Product Development Videos. Demonstrate the roads a product has to travel; before it ends up in the customer’s hands.

5. Promotions and Deals

These types of eCommerce videos are great when you have a new product or a special offer. Promotional videos keep your audience engaged, while also attracting new customers. They are usually short, concise, and straight to the point, which makes them especially suited to social media.

The key requirements for a great promotional video are:

• Emotion. Keep things exciting and interesting.
• Offer. Include the most relevant information about the offer.
• Action. Provide contact information and details about how to make a purchase.

6. A Message from the Founder/CEO

If you want to get really personal with your audience, these eCommerce videos are a great way to go. Not only will you be able to drive up sales, but you will also recruit new employees, strengthen your relationship with clients, and show appreciation for people’s loyalty.

Some great video formats you can try are:

• Q&As.
• Live Videos.
• Interviews.
• Thank You Video.
• Company Announcements.

7. Shoppable Videos

If you ever watched a video and wanted to buy the product with a single click, now it’s possible. Shoppable videos, and in particular livestream shopping, are new trends in social media eCommerce. These videos are highly engaging and entertaining, allowing an instant boost to your sales, brand awareness and new customers.

In essence, shoppable and livestream videos allow users to view a multitude of products and if they like any of the items, they can click on a link and be taken directly to a page that contains relevant information, including details, reviews, pricing, contact info, and a buy button.

The main goal of these interactive eCommerce videos is to satisfy customers’ desire for impulse purchases. Moreover, they help brands create engaging stories and compelling visuals that help improve the shopping experience, boost a campaign’s click-through-rates, and increase the brand’s reach to target audience ratio.

Wrapping Up

Social media videos work wonders for eCommerce, because they are fun, easily digestible, and shareable. They are highly attractive and engaging, easy to share across platforms and effective in driving up sales and strengthening customer relationships.

With videos you can show all the features and benefits of your products in a way that static written content can’t. You can demonstrate how a customer can use your product, why they like it and what makes your brand stand out from the rest.

All in all, creating social media video marketing content is highly beneficial for your eCommerce business. The only limit is your imagination.